Only Slate.com has the guts to get to the question on everyone's mind now that Michael Jackson has passed to the Great Beyond:
Would it be easier to moonwalk on the moon?
“The Explainer” Brian Palmer reveals the shocking answer:
Absolutely not. While the lunar gravitational environment–which exerts
roughly one-sixth of the earth's pull–may seem favorable to
soft-shoeing, humans are actually extremely clumsy on the moon. The
habitual movements we make while walking on Earth are far too forceful
for lunar walking, which is why, even after extensive training, astronauts hop
rather than walk. If Michael Jackson attempted his trademark move on
the moon, he would fly into the air rather than sliding backward.
Space suits also make dancing difficult: They don't move with the wearer like a pair of poorly tailored black pants
since they are pressurized with oxygen to approximate earthly
conditions. While specialized joints improve the pliability of the
space suit, flexing your legs on the moon is a bit like trying to bend
an inflated football on earth.
The Explainer also gets to the bottom of whether the King of Pop could have licensed the moonwalk, what the phrase “Ma-ma-se, ma-ma-sa, ma-ma-coo-sa” means in the hit “Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'” as well as trivial matters like who'll get custody of Jackson's kids.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.